Griggs courier., 1887-12-09


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4 this felloy a lll sssi iinsks 3 long
circuit but Il W. miS siiis nj With such caxs
lthat an antelope would not have taken
tho alarm u saw him 90 intervali,
but whom I reached the spot desired rs
had disappeared from the grove. His
;spoor showed that he had moved
hastily, as If suspicious, and after fol-
lowing it Tor 3 mile I gave; up the
chase and started for camp. Our route
took us near the grove, and what was
my astonishment to see that same ele-
.phant' standing in his old tracks. This
time got shot at him, but he went
of at such a pace as to discourage me
from following. Why did he leave the
grove the first timeP He had neither
seen nor scented US. There was moth
ing to tell him that danger approached.
He was, however, obeying what I
afterward discovered was elephant In
stinct. These great beasts always act
on the theory that they are pursued.
II they rest for time in one spot, they
start up in alarm and 60 off with a
rush when they 30. and it is rarely
they rest again until they have Travelled
twelve or fifteen miles. This fellow
had. been resting two or three hours,
and he started up, went off at trot
for three miles, doubled back like q
fox, and was contentedly feeding when
i saw him the second time.
I have often wondered that no
hunter or native ever found an elephant
who had died by accident or old age.
I suppose the explanation is, that
when an elephant dies in the forest,
the wild beasts speedily devour his car
cass and scatter his bones about; but
one would naturally suppose that some
Of these bones would be found at some
point or other. I have talked with
many hunters and natives, and the dis
covery once made has been declared
an exception, Twas going through an
open forest, following in the wake of a
troop Of, elephants which were feeding,
when I came upon the skeleton Of one
stuck fast between two trees. The
trees grew from the same root, but
spread several feet apart, and in the
excitement Of an alarm the beast had
attempted to pass between them. He
was firmly caught behind the shoulder,
and had been. held there until he
starved to death. Hide and flesh were
gone, and the bones picked clean and
some Of them fallen to the ground, but
I secured a magnificent pair of tusks
for the pulling of them from the flesh
less skull. On another occasion Ifound
an old bull lying flat on his side on tho
open plain. and not yet quite dead. He
had been wounded by poisoned spears
thrown by the natives.
The first thought of wild elephant
is to fee from danger, but the very
first wound inflicted arouses his
temper and makes him dangerous
foe. He may run off with the herd
after being struck, but if pursued and
harrassed ho is quite certain to turn.
The first elephant which charged me
was the most vicious beast ever had
to deal with. had wounded him Sc
verely one moonlight night as he stood
drinking at pool with five or six
others. They all went off with a rush,
and supposed my shot had failed.
About ten o'clock next forenoon, as 1
was beating piece of forest fully four
miles from the pool, with my boy Joe
carrying an extra gun, the wounded
elephant suddenly charged us up a
hillside. He was not over pistol shot
away, but had been so well hidden that
we had not suspected his presence. He
had been hit in the shoulder, and the
ascent was pretty steep. But for this
he would have had us. The man who
would attempt to run away from an
elephant on foot would be corpse in
five minutes. They have an amazing
gait in the open, and their pace is
scarcely impeded by any obstruction
in forest or jungle. Nothing smaller
than tree the size of a mans body
will turn them aside. As the beast
trumpeted and started for us, we both
made for the nearest tree. It was a
large one, with branches growing we'll
down, but we only got one gun up,
and were not above fifteen feet from
the ground when the elephant reached
the spot. He was in a terrible rage.
His first move was to break off every
branch he could reachs and we were
not safe until we were twenty-five feet
above him. he was not over three
minutes stripping Of the branches,
and he did not cease his trumpeting for
q second.
Tho tree was dtty feet. high and